Rafael Trujillo

Rafael Trujillo (24 October 1891-30 May 1961) was head of state of the Dominican Republic from 16 August 1930 to 30 May 1961. Trujillo was only officially the leader twice, from 1930 to 1938 and from 1942 to 1952, but he ruled as a military strongman with puppet presidents, leading a United States-backed dictatorship until his murder on 30 May 1961.

Biography
Rafael Trujillo was born on 24 October 1891 in San Cristobal, Dominican Republic to a Catholic family, the son of a Spanish sergeant and a Franco-Haitian mother. He was the leader of the "42" gang of robbers while he was young, and in 1918 he joined the National Guard during the United States occupation, being made commander-in-chief of the Dominican Army in 1927 after just nine years of service and American training. In 1930, he assisted Rafael Estrella Urena's coup against Horacio Vasquez in exchange for him being allowed to run in new presidential elections, and Trujillo refused Vasquez's orders to put down the coup. On 16 June 1930, he was sworn in as president with Estrella as his running mate, winning due to fradulent elections that left him with 99% of the vote; he began jailing opponents and imposed military rule over the country. Over the next thirty years, Trujillo was a military strongman, setting up puppet presidents as his vassals and putting down opponents. Trujillo imposed a cult of personality and on 2-8 October 1937 he ordered a genocide against Haitians in the Dominican Republic in the "Parsley Massacre", killing 12,166 people. During his reign, he had an open-door policy, allowing Jews from Europe to come to the Dominican Republic as well as Spanish and Japanese refugees in the 1930s and 1940s. During World War II, he symbolically declared war on the Axis Powers, although the republic did not have any participation in the war. Trujillo became a strong United States ally in the years after the war, opposing communism and leading attempts to overthrow Fidel Castro in the Escambray Rebellion. Trujillo's support eroded when his actions of cruelty became internationally notorious, and he eventually lost US support. On 30 May 1961, his Chevrolet Bel Air was ambushed by military coup plotters, and he was gunned down and killed. Shortly afterwards, the coup plotters were rounded up and executed, and the Dominican Republic would devolve into anarchy in the mid-1965, requiring a US occupation once more.